Eileen’s Garden…

The other day I was in my friend Eileen’s garden. I know it’s late in the season and many plants are done, but there were still many to enjoy. I’m always so impressed with gardeners who are so creative and have the energy to keep up with and create beautiful gardens. I haven’t worked in my garden in months, and it looks like it. Right now, my weeds are blooming! Here are some pics of Eileen’s beautiful garden.

  Creeping Jenny….

I get inspired by my friend’s gardens…hoping next year I can inspire my own garden. Hope, and a kick in the beeehind!

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Traveling France…the shop, the traveling boot…

Yesterday a really fabulous article came out about Two Cherubs Antiques in Collingswood Patch, It’s an online venue to find out about what’s happening in your area, what you can participate in, and places to see, go, hang. Deena DiBacco, editor of Collingswood Patch, interviewed me on Friday about what Two Cherubs is all about, and the trips we take. She heard about the ‘Traveling Boots’ you know, the cowboy boots I wear all the time…flea marketing in France…well, everywhere really unless its really hot, or don’t match …mmmm…Ido like flip-flops…growing up we called them thongs!

I thought I’d share the link if you’d like to read it. I didn’t know she was coming in that day, so forgive the outfit!!! But I did just happen to be wearing the new and improved ‘Traveling Boot’ heading to France this Thursday…oo la la!

http://collingswood.patch.com/articles/have-boots-will-travel?ncid=following_comment

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Traveling France…the most fabulous French lamp shades from Paris!!

One of my goals was to make it to the Paris Mason & Objet Show at least once. Well, last September, my sister Amala and I were lucky enough to go with our Parisian Cherub, Jean-Pierre. How fabulous!!

There was so much to see and we had only planned for just one day, because we were going to some auctions while we were in Paris….the auctions, not so good…wish we had spent the extra day at the show.

Anyway, one of the booths had the most incredible lamp shades ever. I just didn’t want to leave the booth. Elegant, unusual, beautiful, fanciful…I was in love.

On our trip this past April, we were able to go to their workroom in Paris. So much to see and so much to choose from. My head was spinning. These are some of my favorites.

 

 

We have some beauties shipping as we speak…hope they get here before we leave for France. Cross your fingers!!!

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Traveling France…treasures found

I never know what I will find or what will catch my eye when we set out on one of our buying trips. That’s what’s so exciting about my work and trips to France. I see so many beautiful things and have to leave so much behind…merde!!

I am very much drawn to lithographs, black and white scenes of all subjects. And if there is a bit of wear, so much the better.

We found this 19th century lovely at the Porte de Vanves flea market in Paris. There were two, but one found a home. I LOVE this one and am so tempted to put it in my new master bath. It would be perfect. It has a worn gilt frame that would go quite well with my grandmother’s fanciful gilt mirror I have above the sink don’t you think?

It would go on another wall of course, but you get the idea…aye..I still need to have the skirt made for the sink, I have a beautiful silk fabric with a French blue and goldish thin stripe ready for Gate.

I love ANYTHING with sheep…this one we found in Barjac from Lulu, he’s from Marsailles and is so very persuasive. It was a little more than I wanted to spend, but he has a way of talking me into things…double merde!! I will have to tell the story of our trip to Marsaille to meet with him another time.

I think it would be lovely in my living room if I had the space…

…that’s my friend Diana. I’ll have to showcase her home soon. I love everything about it…

      

These last two we found at a flea market in Carpentras, in the South of France. I quite love the two, and the bit of French dirt on each…I think I could find a spot or two for them too. But I won’t, I enjoy lovely pieces finding their way into someones home. …Now the first one way above, that just might have to make it to my home. mmmm!

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The ‘Traveling Boots’…traveling France

I LOVE cowboy boots and always take them along on my buying trips to France. And since I’m heading back in August, I’m on the look-out for another pair to take with me.

Since I’m not in Texas, I have been looking online for days and days for the perfect boot, while on an antiquer budget. And unless I want to spend gobs of money, there are slim pickin’s. I can’t believe how many ugly cowboy boots are out there. I think there’s definitely a HUGE HOLE in the boot market.

I found this pair in the new Flea Market Style magazine. Are they not the most fab boots ever??? The owner’s house was featured in the magazine. They’re Lucchese…so I track them down and find out they are discontinued. MERDE! I had my heart set on these. So, I searched online hoping someone had an extra size 9 in the back of the back of the back!

Well, by some fluke, I FOUND them…ordered them, the site took my credit card, thanked me for my order…we’re all happy. Then they call to tell me they are discontinued. DOUBLE MERDE!

Well, I had posted a few on facebook BEFORE I found the most perfect pair ever, and now the pair that is my second choice…is NO LONGER showing up on the website. TRIPLE MERDE!

So, I’ve been on the hunt again, through hundreds of ugly boots…

But now my focus has changed a bit, I’m looking at boots that are a bit more … well more. I found these, waaaay different from anything I’ve been looking at, except the brown, they’re quite safe. 

        

The blue…wow! Do I have the guts? And in a size 9?  mmmh I LOVE the color….so…I ordered all three, and we’ll see if ANY work.

 

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Hydrangeas in my garden

So, we got home this afternoon from our week at the beach. It wizzed by. Now we have to get back in the mode of home, garden, and work…

And speaking of gardens, ours is in bloom mode. One of my favorite flowers is the hydrangea, and they are looking just beautiful. What a nice surprise, to come home to such beauty.

These beautiful blue hydrangeas are in our front yard along the fence. They get the early morning sun and a little in the afternoon, before the sun goes behind the house. They are very happy here and just get better every year.

In our side yard, under the pergola, we have several different varieties of hydrangeas in shades of blue and pink. I’m partial to the blue.

I love the hydrangeas in these iron urns that I found in Brimfield…that you can barely see in this picture… You can see the back of a pair of 19th century garden gates I found at a roadside Brocante, outside Uzes, in the south of France.

 

Ellie, our yellow lab, loves to follow me around outside. She was very happy to have us home.

The hydrangea bush under this bird bath is very slooooow growing. It’s finally blooming. We found the bird bath from a Belgium dealer at an antique fair in Avignon. The concrete cherub riding the fish in the center is one of my favorite pieces in the garden.

I had to move these bushes because they were getting the high noon sun and were getting burned. So hopefully they’ll do better in their new location, near these window boxes on the garage.

This is the front side of the 19th century iron gates, way cool! There’s one more, but I’m not sure where it’s going to go. I have the two iron urns flanking these gates on the other side under the pergola. There’s the Elster.

Tomorrow morning I think I’ll just have to sit under the pergola and enjoy their beauty.

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Traveling with my cowboy boots…

So, this past week we’ve been on a family vacation at the Jersey Shore…I find it odd calling it the shore. I grew up in Texas and we call it the ‘beach’. Kinda like when I call ‘sneakers’ tennis shoes…I just can’t say sneakers. When I told a friend of my son’s to go get his tennis shoes, he said to me, I don’t play tennis…well anyway.

A facebook friend asked me if I was going to post pictures of my cowboy boots at the beach? …A little history for those of you who don’t know…for the past two years, when on my buying trips to France, I’ve been taking pictures of my cowboy boots as we travel through France. It started out just for fun. I think the first picture was in the Paris flea markets, when we found a pair of fabulous blue iron urns. I was wearing my black and tan boots from South Texas. Well, everyone loves the pictures and they’ve taken on a life of their own.    

At the end of the day, the life guards are gone, everyone has left to go home or to the boardwalk. I love it at the beach at this time of day. Very serene.

Hanging in the life guard station, watching the tide go out, and listening to the waves crash.

Tomorrow we go home. I can’t believe the time has gone by so fast. Back to our everyday routine…but we’re only an hour away, so…can’t wait to come back.

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Traveling France…beautiful garden in a medieval village in the South of France

Last September, Amy and I went on a buying trip in Paris and the South of France, and hit the Paris Maison et Objets. Way cooool!

Well, when we were tooling around the South, on our own for the second time, (Jean-Pierre was otherwise engaged) we went to Lussan, our favorite medieval village. It is small, charming, stone everywhere, painted shutters, gardens, and an incredible view of the countryside all around. We were determined to stay there on our next buying trip…which was this past April.

I couldn’t find my brochure for the hotel in the village, but luckily I had taken a picture of what I thought was a Spa/Salon. I looked up the Spa to ask what the name of the hotel was, and it turned out to be a place to stay, and not a Spa. Was I in LUCK! So, we booked rooms. When we arrived and went inside we were so enchanged and the garden, well, we fell in love.

I took a video of their incredible garden…

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Traveling France…French Cooking Class from ‘On Rue Tatin’ author/chef Susan Herrmann

When we were in Paris in April, we took a cooking class from Susan Herrmann, the author of ‘On Rue Tatin’. I saw an article in Traditional Home magazine the week before our trip. There was a big yellow Tian bowl like we sell in our shop in the photo. Well, that hooked me and I called my sister Amy to see if she wanted to go. OF COURSE she wanted to go, and there were two spots left!

Off we went to rue Jacob, behind the church of Saint Germain des Pris, through a small courtyard, two doors, and up the stairs. Walking into the rooms where the class was held were so charming and beautiful and FRENCH! The table was set and the other students were there waiting for us…we were a bit late, couldn’t get a taxi right away.

  

There were eight of us for the evening class. We were paired in two’s to make one course of the meal. Amy wanted to do the entree…pork with yogurt with lemon zest and cilantro oil. You can see us all at work and Susan is the redhead on the far right in the photo.

The little details in the apartment are what made the space so wonderful. They used old glass doors for the built-in, as sliding doors.

We met people from Hawaii, Texas and Washington State. Conversation was great and the food was simply wonderful.

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The ‘Traveling Boots’…on the move around France

A few years ago, on one of our buying trips to France, I started taking pictures of my COWBOY BOOTS  for fun. I really don’t know how it happened. I guess I could ask my friend Diana, she was there when it all started.

            

I wear cowboy boots because they are STYLIN’ … hahaha!! … I can wear them all day at the flea markets and fairs…and there’s that Texas thing! I now have four pairs and I’m always on the look out for more. I’d really like a pair with red cactus on them, or Our Lady of Guadalupe with a bit of chartreuse, but we’re talkin’ custom.

    

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